Painted Smiles
by AuthorFail
Summary: Sakura and Naruto are forced to live together with their new teammate Sai for one month. Just when Sakura starts to fall for the artist, Sasuke returns and is none to happy with what he finds.
1. Ink

I actually wrote this in a period of two hours which is pretty crazy for me because usually it takes a lot longer. By the way this is rated M for language.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

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><p>"Sakura! Sai! In my office now!" Tsunade didn't have time to deal with this right now. There was a mountain of paperwork sitting on her desk just staring her down, taunting her with its immense size. Who the hell signed her up for this goddamn job? Oh yeah. Her eyes narrowed at the blond-haired ninja seated before her. He'd grown physically, but mentally not much had changed. He had his arms crossed and was frowning in the same way he used to whenever one of his little pranks had been discovered, but she'd deal with Naruto later; right now her focus was on the other two.<p>

Sakura and the new replacement for Sasuke, Sai, stood before her, neither one of them looking sorry for what had happened. Apparently the old team hadn't exactly hit it off with their new member, which, of course, was to be expected. Teams take time to work and flow smoothly, but this was just ridiculous.

They were standing about as far apart as the room would allow, Sai's face and shirt, were covered in drying blood, and Tsunade also noticed red spots of it splattered across Sakura's front. She leaned back in her seat, taking in the two bloody youths. She took a deep breath, she would be needing it.

"Sakura, I expected something like this from Naruto, but you," Her glare sharpened fiercely toward Sakura. "I thought you would be able to handle the situation." Sakura remained silent, but her rage had not yet cooled, evident in her clenched fists.

"Excuse me Lady Tsunade." Her gaze drifted to the pale boy. He was smiling despite everything that had happened, which, Tsunade couldn't deny, was a bit creepy.

"Yes, Sai?"

"If ugly here doesn't wish to play nice, that's okay with me, I won't either."

"Ugly?" Blood was rushing to her face, turning it an angry red. "I **was** playing nice with you, bastard! Had I not your whole face would have been broken instead of just your damn nose!"

"You know you look even more like a charging bull when you're angry."

"What! You better take those words back before I shove my fist down your throat!" Sakura would have decked him again if not for Naruto grabbing her arm in the nick of time.

"Don't waste your energy on that prick, Sakura." Naruto said trying his best to calm down the medic ninja.

Sai's smile still hadn't budged; it was as if it had been drawn onto his face with ink. "I'm surprised you have enough strength to hold back that monster, dickless."

Naruto's eye twitched and then he released Sakura. "I'm done. Kill him Sakura! Punch his lights out!"

"Having a girl fight your battles I see? Very manly."

"Enough!" Tsunade's yell shook the entire office. "I will not have fighting in my office, do you understand me?"

Naruto and Sakura's head dropped. "Yes, maam."

Tsunade linked her fingers in front of her and looked over the three Shinobi once again. "We will all agree that Team Seven will not be able to go out on a mission like this. Good team members must rely on each other and trust each other with their very lives."

"Please Granny Tsunade, then reassign **him**," Naruto cast a dark look over to Sai. "We were doing just fine with only three members."

"Naruto's right," Added Sakura. "Our team will never work this way."

"For once I agree with them." Sai said, nodding towards the others.

"Then we all agree." Tsunade said. She collected a few scattered papers into a small pile. "Team Seven will not be able to function as is." Out of the corner of her eye she saw smiles begin to rise on Sakura and Naruto's faces. "Which is why I order you three to spend one month living together and bonding as a team."

"What, you've got to be kidding me, Granny." Naruto whined. Sakura groaned as well and even Sai's smile had dropped to a thin line of disappointment.

"Enough." Tsunade dropped the stack of papers into a drawer signaling the end of the conversation. "Yamato will be overseeing the operation, and I expect you all to put forth real effort or the consequences will be severe. Naruto and Sakura both shivered at the thought of Tsunade's consequences. That could mean anything from a heel kick to the face or an entire month of missions exclusively targeting to helping old ladies carry home their groceries. It was hard to decide which one was worse.

"You may enter Yamato." Tsunade announced to the air, which was soon filled with their stand in team leader, who was looking way to cheerful.

"Tomorrow we will begin, you three better get a good night's sleep, you're gonna need it."

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><p>Sakura and Naruto both trudged out of the Hokage's mansion, despair striking them both silent. The sun had already begin to set which meant a minimal time to wallow in self pity before they were forced into living within ten feet of the guy they both hated. A whole month. The thought of spending a month with Naruto might have killed Sakura in her early years, but now it wasn't so bad. He could be loud, yeah, annoying too, but never as bad as that arrogant, son of a bitch, motherfucking, asshole, shit face Sai. And teambuilding activities with him, Sakura swore to god if Yamato makes her do a trust fall with that douche-<p>

"Sakura."

"Huh?" She glanced behind her where Naruto had stopped. He was staring at the ramen restaurant like it was a gift sent from god. "What Naruto?"

"I think I'm gonna have some ramen before I go home, you wanna come?" That was just like Naruto. Drowning his sorrows in ramen. Unfortunately it wasn't that easy for Sakura.

"Thanks, but I think I should be getting some sleep like Yamato said." She gave him a smile and a wave before continuing on.

She'd almost reached her home when she stopped at a particular intersection. South was her house, but east was Sai's, she remembered seeing him go off this way after a mission before. Her body was pulling her to the south, but maybe going over and sorting out this whole nose breaking problem would benefit her in the morning when they would be living together, might even keep him from letting the back of her head slam into a hardwood floor. Yeah, east sounded like a pretty good idea.

Sakura groaned loudly to herself. After five minutes of searching to street she still couldn't find any hint of Sai-ness on the plainly identical houses. How did these people even figure out which was theirs? She sure as hell wouldn't be able to. "Stupid Sai and his stupid face and his stupid house and his goddamn stupid half shirt." She muttered under her breath as she started again to make a third round. Three was her limit after this it was back home.

"What creative insults you have there, ugly." Sakura looked up to the source of it. Sai leaned against the rail of a balcony, that pleasant smile still on his face. It was so fake it was hard to look at.

"Oh there you are Sai, I've been looking all over for you." Sakura fought to keep a smile on her face as well. If he could fake smile then so could she.

"It's late." He said. "A woman usually shows up at a man's house after hours to get in his pants? Isn't that right, ugly?"

A few men who had been walking past overheard Sai and were whispering things Sakura knew were aimed at her. Her face was beginning to grow hot with both embarrassment and anger. Her hands had to stay tucked behind her back to keep Sai from noticing the fists they were forming.

"Actually, Sai, I have something I wanted to talk to you about, please can we continue this inside." The effort from smiling was starting to hurt. How could he keep that fake smile up for so long?

"Persistent, aren't you. Do you usually get men by forcing yourself on them?"

Her thin smile ripped like tissue paper. "You arrogant little-agh!" Sakura was at a loss for what word to call him, nothing seemed to illustrate exactly how much she disliked him. Maybe learning some new insults would help. "I shouldn't have even come here in the first place. A waste of my time." She mumbled and stomped off toward her own home.

Sai watched her with ink black eyes, wanting to know what she'd come to say, but with no words to bring her back.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>Hope you liked that and continue to read. I'm looked for a beta reader too, so if you're interested send me a story you've betaed, or written, preferably something Naruto and we will see what happens. As always thank you for reading!


	2. Paper

Hi! I actually really like where this story is going. Have fun reading.

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><p>The day started early for Sakura. She left carrying a bag of possessions and pulling a hand through her tangled pink hair. The chill of dawn was still in the air as she walked along the near empty streets of Konoha. A lone bird chirped from its perch, the only noise in the entire town.<p>

The location Yamato had instructed them to meet at wasn't far. Sakura tucked the address into her pocket. This was the right place, the presence of Sai and Yamato confirmed that. They stood in front of a massive wooden house she was sure hadn't been there a few days ago. Sakura shifted her bag off her already aching shoulder and peered up at the house. It was actually pretty nice, perhaps this wouldn't be as bad as she'd first thought.

A voice broke the silence. "I'm not late! I'm here! I'm here!" A small flock of birds rose to the air, startled. Naruto was the source of the disruption, as usually. He looked literally as if he'd just rolled out of bed, or fallen. His jacket was half unzipped and his headband was sliding down one side of his face. Sakura couldn't help, but smile at his appearance. Thank god Tsunade had sent him along too.

"Looks like Kakashi's rubbing off on you, in more ways than one." Yamato laughed.

Naruto zipped up the remainder of his jacket and readjusted the headband. "Aw come on, I wasn't _that_ late."

"Well anyway," Yamato began. "This is where you guys will be staying for the month." He motioned proudly to the large house. "Made it myself." After allowing a few moments for them to admire their new home and his work Yamato continued, "I'll leave you three to get settled in, alright? I'll be back in about an hour. Oh, yea I almost forgot-," His voice dipped into a serious tone. "Don't kill each other." An unsettlingly cold stare punctuated his words.

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><p>The house was as big inside as it looked outside. Once you stepped inside it opened up into a large main room with a high ceiling and a spacious kitchen on one side paired with a table and a few chairs. The other half was a sitting area with a sofa and an overstuffed chair arranged around a thick carpet. Three doors looked to lead to bedrooms while a fourth was to a bathroom. The room looked a little bare, but it had everything they would need.<p>

The three split off to separate rooms first, to drop off the items they'd brought along. Sakura's room was pretty basic. It was modestly sized with a bed, a wardrobe a small bedside table and a tiny desk crammed in the corner. She dumped out the bag, letting its contents spill across the soft white comforter of the bed. Her fingers picked through the bundles of clothing, unwrapping one of her favorite shirts to bring out a picture frame. Her most prized possessions, the photo of the original Team Seven. She placed it carefully on the bedside table. At home it had always sat beside her bed too. The rest of her items were left, there'd be time enough for them late.

Back in the sitting room Naruto already lay sprawled across the couch, his arms crossed behind his head. "This is stupid." He murmured, pouting. "I should be training to become the Hokage, not stuck in here."

Sakura pushed his feet aside gently and dropped onto the surprisingly comfy couch. "It's only for a month." She smiled softly at him, it wasn't often she was the one lifting his spirits.

His eyes gazed up at the ceiling unblinking. His mind somewhere else. After a moment he spoke. "Sakura?"

"Hn?"

"I haven't forgotten. I'll bring Sasuke back to the village. Then we can be Team Seven again." Sakura didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling. "We won't need a Sasuke replacement."

Sakura nodded slowly. They both hadn't stopped thinking about Sasuke, not since that day. "I know."

"I'll be looking forward to that day as well." Sai's voice said from behind them. Sakura raised an eyebrow at his words. He'd actually opened his mouth and something insulting hadn't come out. Maybe he wasn't _that _bad. Then he went on, "Not for the same reason of course though. It'll be good to see that traitorous bastard with a noose around his neck."

Scratch that he's still a douche. Sakura tried to stay calm. She repeated Yamato's words in her mind. What would he do if she killed him? The pros could outweigh the cons, but that all depended on the punishment. It was something she would have to sleep on.

"Hopefully it will be sometime in spring, the cherry blossoms would contrast nicely with the pale skin of his corpse." That cut deep, but that wasn't what broke Sakura. His damn face was what did it. He was still smiling even with words like poison spilling out of his throat.

She couldn't recall getting up all she knew was that his collar was clenched in her gloved hand. "Take it back." The words hissed out from her clenched teeth.

Dark eyes stared at her. It was impossible to tell what was behind them, if anything at all.

"Why are you so defensive of someone who left you behind," His eyes darted toward Naruto. "Who left both of you behind."

Sakura released him stiffly. She hesitated to compose herself. "Someone like you would never understand. You have no one you love. No friends or family. It would be a waste to try and explain."

Naruto's voice was quiet. "Are you ok Sakura?" Unbelievable, Naruto had managed to hold it together. Maybe it was true what they said, she must have also inherited her master's hot temper.

There was a knock at the door and Sai went wordlessly to answer it.

"I'm fine Naruto." Her voice sounded sharp as a shard of broken glass. She hadn't meant it to. Naruto wasn't the one she should be taking this out on. "Well, at least I didn't kill him, right?" Her attempt at humor didn't go as well; Naruto was still staring at her with concerned friend's eyes. He didn't need another thing to worry him.

Yamato was at the door, come to force them into all manner of team building activities. Most of the day was dedicated to exercise that were usually used by jonin to introduce their new genin students to their teammates. They should have been effortlessly easy, but Yamato had to put his own spin on them, transforming the simple into physically demanding and all the while yelling at them in a strict commander's voice. By the end of it the three of them were drained of chakra and energy, their bodies begging for an end to the abuse. The only upside was Yamato treating them all to ramen, in which Naruto ate more than the Yamato, Sakura and Sai combined, and announcing the next training session wouldn't be for two days. Sakrua was just relieved there was no trust fall. Thank god for that.

Sakura had to drag herself home. The only thing she wanted to do was take a shower and fall into bed. She threw her medic bag on the floor of her room and grabbed up some pajamas and a bag of toiletries.

She left her room with the intent of going straight to the shower, but something caught her eye on the way there. Naruto's door was open just a crack with the sounds of snores drifting out. She poked her head in just a bit to see her teammate sprawled across the bed. A crumbled pile of cloth on the floor was his jacket. His headband was thrown on top the orange and black mess. Sighing, Sakura bend to pick the two articles of clothing up. He was still as messy as the day they'd met. Any girlfriend he got would run screaming after seeing the state of his house.

She laid his folded jacket on a desk that matched the one in her room before turning her attention to his headband. Carefully she folded the black ends of cloth behind the metal plate that proudly proclaimed the leaf village's symbol. She hadn't forgotten how hard it'd been for him to receive that headband. Looking at him now you would never have guessed the trouble he'd gone through as child. Sakura had had an easy childhood compared to Naruto and Sasuke's pasts.

Her hands went to lay the headband on the table beside his bed, but she instead found her staring at herself. Two years younger, Naruto at her side, Kakashi looking lazily into the camera and _him_ on her other side. Sai's words flashed in her mind as bright as fresh blood. Who could Sasuke be now? As much as Sakura wanted to believe that he was still the boy who had left her that night, just because you want it to be true does not make it true. She placed the headband down. That shower was looking even better now. Showers always helped clear her head.

The air that rushed to greet Sakura when she opened the bathroom door was hot and moist, like after a summer storm. The reflection that should have been in the mirror was clouded over with white. The realisation rushed to her mind, bringing along a rush of red to her face.

A figure stepped out from the shower, only a towel loosely wrapped around his waist. His usual paper white skin was flushed pink and beads of water traced the lines down his toned chest. Her eyes searched over his skin like it was the first time she'd seen a male's body before. Suddenly she felt like a schoolgirl again, giggling with Ino over a magazine picture of a half naked man.

He pushed back his dark hair to stare with ink blot eyes. "Forgot how to knock?"

Flustered she averted her eyes from his body. "It's not my fault you don't know how to lock doors," She said scowling. The fire in her face was getting aggravatingly hotter.

"I thought I had." His body slid past her to examine the door handle. The bare flesh of his arm on her own made her shiver. Sakura heard the turn of the knob, and allowed just a peek at him. His back was just as toned as the front, flawlessly white and… delicious? Oh god, had she really just thought that? She immediately cursed herself for it. She'd seen plenty of men without their shirts; she was after all a medic ninja, why should he be any different? "It must have been broken." He stated flatly.

"What?" she snapped. "You think I broke it?"

He shrugged. "You do seem to have an obsession with me, ugly." Her eyebrow twitched. This guy. This fucking guy. He was just asking for it now.

"You must be a sadist." She grumbled. Her arms were rigid at her sides.

He paused halfway out the door to glance back at her. "Not in the least. Why would you say that?" Sakura scoffed and he was gone the door clicking shut behind him. Sakura released an angry breath and stripped off her clothing. She turned the shower handle as far to the left as it would go until hot water surged out to greet her skin and drench her in warmth.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong>: Thank you, thank you for reading! You, yes you, make my life. I know everyone says this, but please review, I will reply to all reviews, so if you have a question or noticed a mistake please tell me. Especially the mistake I hate hate when I don't notice I've made a mistake. Which again makes me wish I had a beta reader. Thanks again!


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